Cranes
by hewhoistomriddle
Summary: “A thousand paper cranes were supposed to make wishes come true. Konan folds nine thousand and disproves the myth.” Possible spoilers. Disclaimer: Not mine.


_"_**_A thousand paper cranes were supposed to make wishes come true. Konan folds nine thousand and disproves the myth."_ An exploration of that group of tragedies, Akatsuki.

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**CRANES**

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_Peel. Smoothen. Smile. Konan folds and folds and folds._

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**Nagato and Konan**

Undoubtedly, Konan had loved Yahiko – he was her sun, her savior, her precious friend. Yahiko had been the one who never gave up, kept on fighting and inspired men to follow his vision. In the ruins of the fallen Amegakure, the three of them, desperate orphans of a war-torn country, scavenging corpses for food and doing everything to stay alive, had forged unbreakable bonds.

_You are my life. You are my dreams. I will die for you_.

When Yahiko was killed, Konan lost two people and not one, got caught in Nagato's meteoric rise to power, spent company with six terribly strong _corpses_, masqueraded as an angel when she knew all too well of mortality. When you were with a man who had power over life and death, things get complicated that way.

Jiraiya was not wrong when he said Konan was the kindest of the kids. _She was, she was_. But Konan also knew the price of being kind when you were shinobi. That is why she keeps her kindness on a leash, and selfishly guards those important to her.

Konan's loyalty is to people, not causes. She will not hesitate to sacrifice a dream to save a life.

Nagato is the opposite. He will willingly die to give fruition to his vision of a peace through vengeance and terror. It is not her place to convince him otherwise.

Instead, she makes him cranes suffused with memories of three children and a dog, a legendary ninja, paper roses and a neverending rain, and reminds him that she will always be at his side.

Konan lives for the living. She wishes, for both their sakes, Nagato would do the same.

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**Itachi**

Before Itachi went missing-nin, he was the golden prince of the strongest of the Hidden villages, the heir to an old and revered shinobi clan. Out of the Akatsuki – war orphans, wanted criminals, _brutes_ and _madmen_ – he was most informed about theories on chakra, history, military strategy and politics, and better acquainted with the finer points of ninja culture and etiquette. Uchiha Itachi had been frightfully polite, with a refined manner and an easy confidence that bespoke his near-aristocratic background.

Konan had liked him, and trusted him the least, this daunting adolescent who killed his own kin to measure his power, who saw the world so terribly clearly with his sharingan eyes. Itachi's true strength and genius lay in his _insight_, his consummate understanding of human nature, his ability to read and predict his opponents' moves so thoroughly that most fights were over before they even begun.

That is why she knows something is up when he deviates from the mission plan. Itachi never does anything unintentionally.

When she folds cranes for him, she uses the finest, most expensive paper she could find and wishes him success on whatever he was working independently on.

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**Deidara**

Deidara had been the loudest, the most reckless, and the most rebellious member of the Akatsuki. A mind all genius and passion and a talent for destruction. Born and raised in the art of annihilation, it was his sheer disregard for human life that made him one of the most dangerous members.

Konan had taken one look and saw a weapon masquerading as a _boy_. His _art_ was a mere cover for the chaos that was inside him, an inferno that went up and up and up.

Deidara, she knows, is _insane_. He lives in the moment because he had no vision at all. His plan to for revenge on Itachi was as long-term as he got.

Konan whispers a one-time apology for taking away his youth and wishes for him to find a sense of self.

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**Sasori**

He is a true child of _Suna_. Infamous, powerful, genius – perhaps more so than any of them.

But Konan still pities Sasori.

Sasori had an impaired ability to feel for anything but the perfect and eternal (_brought about by an inborn respect for the timeless and his own traumatic personal loss_).

In his eyes, men and heroes and nations were but a fleeting moment. Because of it, Sasori could betray his country and his Kage and start wars without caring.

_Such a perfectionist, such discontent. _

Sasori abhorred transience. He mutilated his own body and defiled his own flesh in defiance. Given a choice, Konan had no doubt, he'd turn the world into puppets.

She hoped he would finally find beauty. And meaning. And happiness.

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**Hidan**

Hidan is approximately a hundred and twenty years older than her and has seen more wars, more death and more destruction than any of them.

Konan fears him the most, this saint-faced slaughterer who knows no limits.

Konan has never known a god save for Pein (_but even then, she knows the mortal behind him_) and does not know what it means to believe in higher power. But to Hidan, everything is secondary to Jashin. Hidan's god, she thinks, is a macabre mockery of faith, a creation of a mind so terrifyingly complex that it surpasses understanding, a reason to go beyond everything without wavering and a purpose to live for _forever_.

It is admirable.

She wishes for Hidan to meet his God.

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**Kisame**

_There is no want for attractiveness in Akatsuki_, Konan idly notes.

_Sasori, Deidara, Itachi, Hidan…_ all of them were fine-looking shinobi. It was just too bad about the malignancy in their souls that oozed out into their actions like pus out of a festering wound.

Kisame did not have that. He was a shinobi of extremely high caliber, a monstrous veneer, a higher level of sadism than normal. Amiable, accepting, even _friendy_, Kisame was as normal as they got.

It was just too bad that he, like his sword, gravitated towards power and willingly served worse monsters for a taste of it. He should have realized his own power was enough.

Of everyone, Kisame was the member who should never have been Akatsuki.

Konan wishes he followed his own path.

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**Kakuzu**

For anything besides the material, Kakuzu had no sense of value.

_Comradeship, loyalty, resolve, power, life_… He had no recognition for what all these were worth beyond money and bounties. His allegiances rested with who could pay the most, who could help him get the more expensive targets.

Because of this, he will never realize the zenith and depths of human existence, the _joy _and _horror _of being alive.

Konan makes a wish that Kakuzu realizes what_ void, _what_ abyss_ he is trying to fill with money and other people's hearts.

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**Tobi**

A frightful shell of a once-god-of-a-man who sowed his hatred wherever he went. Who _used_ all of them.

Konan just wishes he would _die_.

* * *

Nagato left her.

Itachi's sacrifice went to nothing.

Deidara died for no good reason.

Sasori let himself be killed.

Hidan's god didn't save him.

Kisame died following orders.

Kakuzu was a money-whore to the bitter end.

Tobi was still alive.

And Konan was lost.

_She burned the cranes.

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_Owari

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**AN:**

I don't usually ask this but _please review_. I really want feedback on how I interpreted a facet of the characters and it would be nice to also get your view on them. I withheld on some of them because I had a hard time grasping their character (Zetsu, forexample, I left out entirely because I just don't _get_ the guy.)

**Next up:** An _Epitome _update! :3 Going for humor this time.

All is well for Hyuuga Hinata until she is captured by Itachi of the Sharingan and the Jolly Akatsuki. Sailing over the high seas with the most fearsome crew in history with Captain-of-the-Guard Neji and her own fiancé Uchiha Sasuke in hot pursuit, getting into bar brawls and continually being mistaken for a wench, and trying (_in vain_) to make sense of her kidnapper, what's a lady to do? ItaHina.

Features Superstitious!Hidan (_"What the hell! She's a fucking girl! It's fucking bad enough we already have Blue and Blondie ("I'm a MAN, un!")!Oh, Jashin-sama, you might as well sink our asses now.")_


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